Funding news from The Aspire Fund, the Government’s flagship fund for women-led businesses, which closed a recent investment deal. In an guest article on the website of the British Business angels Association, Melanie Perkins of the Aspire Fund reported that it has invested an amount of £300,00 in 'a leading developer and provider of online accounting packages, Liquid Accounts Ltd'. She wrote:

Using new internet-based technology to resolve problems of high costs and low portability of accounting services, Liquid Accounts has found a solution that suits the needs of small businesses and larger more established companies alike, with clients ranging from Ebay shops to multi-nationals.

"Liquid Accounts, founded by entrepreneur Lisa Kendrick and her partners Jon Wright and Matthew Holmes, brought together a successful syndicate of experienced business angels who raised over half of the total £770,000 investment that they needed to build on the pre-launch success of the company and position it as a market leader in the accounting software field. The Aspire Fund was delighted to invest the remaining £300,000."

Yorkshire-based Liquid Accounts Ltd is a pioneer of Cloud Accounting in the UK and has raised the investment in order to further its position as a market-leader in the fast-growing field of online accounting software (also known as Cloud Computing, or Software as a Service – SaaS).  The company raised the funding by selling an 18% stake to a syndicate of prominent local business angels, with a further 12% being match-funded by the The Aspire Fund.

Co-Founder a Woman: Criteria for The Aspire Fund

Lisa Kendrick, one of the co-founders started the company in early 2005, when she was asked by co-directors Matthew Holmes and Jon Wright to help them set up Liquid Accounts, offering online accounting software designed make business bookkeeping easier to do. Prior thereto she was a broadcast journalist, a researcher for the BBC and a TV Producer/Director. She  is a Women's Enterprise Ambassador. In this funding process, a business mentor pointed her to The Aspire Fund.

By putting government money behind viable women-led businesses on a co-investment basis, the Aspire Fund encourages private investors to take the plunge and support new ventures that have the potential for rapid growth and high returns. It acts as a beacon to encourage female entrepreneurship and demonstrates to the investment sector that women-led businesses, which on current trends benefit from official investment far less than male-dominated businesses, really are attractive options.

Co-Investement Fund

The fund is able to make investments of between £100k and £1m, providing up to 50% of capital in a funding round alongside other private investors. For female entrepreneurs and for business angels, the co-investment model is particularly important. Whereas women are less likely to receive formal venture capital funding, they often rely on small loans or investments from other business acquaintances, relatives or friends. In other words, from business angels of sorts.

In total, the Aspire Fund has invested just under £2m, and through the co-investment model has raised £4.3m of additional funding from private investors and businesses angels.

Source: BBAA